THEIR numbers may have dwindled, but, 90 years on, their remarkable spirit lives on.

Today veterans of World War I will travel to the Cenotaph in London to remember the 750,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers who lost their lives.

There are just 23 known surviving veterans of the Great War, and only four were this year well enough to take part in the Service of Remembrance.

Three survivors are in Wales, living in residential homes or with their families.

All aged over 100, our last link with the generation that gave up so much.

Most are wheelchair-bound and would rather forget the horrors they experienced on the Western Front.

But all share one common desire, to respect those who died by keeping alive their memories however painful.

In Wales, Alfred Finnigan, 107, served with the Royal Field Artillery; George Hardy, 105, served with the Inniskillings and Jack Obourne , 104, served with the Duke of Devonshire Regiment.

Most now find it difficult to talk of that painful period in their lives and some are finding the memories blurred with time.

Mr Hardy, now living at Cartref Nursing Home in Porthcawl, joined up in the last few months of the war.

He said, "I joined up with the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, the cavalry - even though I had never sat on a horse before."

Mr Hardy had already lied about his age in an attempt to join the Army when he was too young.

He said, "The forces were all different in those days, the cavalry regiments aren't around now as far as I know.

"I did my training in the desert and where we were, there was not a house for 100 miles around, not one house or building."

Henry Allingham, who at 108 is Britain's oldest First World War veteran, said, "Like so many, I have tried to forget my time in the war.

"In the last few years I have met other veterans, and we never spoke one word of the war, not one.

"But I feel I have to go to the commemorations on Wednesday.

It's respectful to the men who gave so much. So many didn't make it."

And Fred Lloyd, 106, who lost both his brothers between 1914 and 1918, said, "War is not a wonderful thing to be remembered, but those who died must never be forgotten. I'll be there for the lads."

Veterans minister Ivor Caplin will be among dignitaries at the 11am service today to mark the 90th anniversary of Britain's declaration of war on Germany in 1914. It is being led by the World War One Veterans Association.

Other guests will include Lord Kitchener, a great nephew of Kitchener himself, head of the war ministry who rallied an army of a million men with his famous war-call "Britain needs you".

Mr Allingham, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, who served with the Royal Navy Air Services at the Somme, Battle of Jutland and the third battle of Ypres, will begin the service by leading the congregation in the Lord's Prayer.

Mr Lloyd, who served with the Royal Veterinary Corps and risked death by taking horses to the front line on the Western Front, is expected to recite John McCrae's haunting 1915 poem In Flanders Field before Royal Navy veteran William Stone, 103, delivers the exhortation.

Both a representative from the MoD, which is helping to organise the commemorations, and a member of the Veterans Association will lay wreaths at the Cenotaph.

The group will then have lunch at the MoD where Mr Caplin will award the new Veteran's Badge to those veterans at the event who have not already received one.

Dennis Goodwin, who runs the World War One Veterans Association from his home in Rustington, West Sussex, said, "The event on Wednesday is not dissimilar to August 4, 1914, when we were unprepared and only able to muster a small standing army.

"We have only been able to muster a very small number of our veterans, although to get four there

New weapons and trench warfare made conflict the bloodiest the world had known

- The First World War followed decades of increasing tension between the European powers with the development of a complex series of pacts accompanied by an arms race.

- The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June 28, 1914, by a fanatical Bosnian nationalist gunman acted as the catalyst for the outbreak of the war.

- Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia and mobilised her forces for war on July 28. Russia, Serbia's friend and protector, then mobilised her army, which led in turn to Germany, Austria-Hungary's ally, mobilising hers.

- Germany declared war on Russia on August 1 after she refused to cease mobilisation. Germany and France declared war on each other on August 3 after Germany had demanded free passage for its troops through Belgian territory.

- Britain declared war on Germany on August 4 after the German army invaded Belgium. Today is the 90th anniversary of that declaration.

- The 1914 Treaty of London saw Britain, France and Russia promise not to make a separate peace with Central Powers Germany and Austria-Hungry.

- As a result the three countries became known as the Allied or Entente Powers, or simply the Allies.

- The development of new weapons and trench warfare made the conflict the bloodiest the world had known and the carnage of the eastern front destroyed Russian morale, paving the way for the two revolutions of 1917.

- The fighting stopped for one day on Christmas Day 1914 when British and German soldiers called a truce and played football together in "No Man's Land".

- During the war the Allied and Associated Powers mobilised more than 42,000,000 men.

- More than 5,000,000 of those died, with 3,000,000 French and Russians killed.

- Along with Turkey and Bulgaria, the Central Powers mobilised nearly 23,000,000 troops and lost around 3,400,000 lives - 3,000,000 from Germany and Austria-Hungary.

- In all, more than 10,000,000 people are thought to have perished with more than 21,000,000 soldiers wounded.

- The total number of British deaths as a result of the war was 744,702.

- World War I saw the birth of the concept of "total war", where the combatants would mobilise all of their industrial, economic and military power in support of the war effort.

- Troops from across the Commonwealth, including India, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, rallied to support the British.